


The Memory Thief

by Iridalmenie



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Spike and Suzy, Suske en Wiske
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Mild Language, Tags Are Hard, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-06 19:38:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18857749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iridalmenie/pseuds/Iridalmenie
Summary: A team of heroes lost in time, an alien hiding from the law, future technology in the past. Add one Doctor to the mix and stir well. What could go wrong?





	1. Chapter 1 - Stuck in time

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my lovelies. Here's a story I wrote some years ago. I posted the first couple of chapters on another website, then stopped updating, then recently took the story back up and decided to post it here. It's a crossover, which I seem to like writing better than stories set purely in one fandom. Because why not.
> 
> Spike and Suzy are a duo of child/young adult heroes (depending on the story you read) that are very popular in Belgium. Their Dutch names are Suske en Wiske. They have a bunch of adults helping them on their many adventures. If you're curious about them, many of their comics were translated into different languages.
> 
> Any of you who are familiar with Suske en Wiske, and interested in helping a writer out: I'm trying to write a sequel, but I'm stuck on Krimson's plot, so if you want to help brainstorm shoot me a message ^.^ 
> 
> Doctor Who is property of BBC, Suske en Wiske is property of Studio Vandensteen. I just wanted to see what mixing the two would turn into. Not beta'ed, any mistakes are mine.

Antwerp, 1448

It was a rainy summer's day in the growing town of Antwerp. Most inhabitants had long since sought the shelter of their homes. Vespers had rung some time ago, but there would be daylight for at least another three hours. 

On the outskirts of the town, close to the river Schelde which ran through it, were situated several warehouses. They were used to store goods that came down the river and were needed in the town proper. In one of these warehouses, four people were sheltering from the elements. It seemed that they did not have a home to go to. Their posture suggested they were waiting for something to happen, or rather that they had been waiting for it for a long time already and were on the verge of losing hope. 

Two of the people were young, around 18 or 19. They were sitting on a bale of wool. The girl had long blonde hair, although most of it was hidden under a neat white veil. She had expressive blue eyes and a generous mouth, which was at the moment set in a grim line. Her hands were alternately bunching and smoothing the fabric of her blue gown. The boy, blackhaired with a spike at the end of his hair, had his arm around her, watching her nervous action with a worried frown on his face.

Prowling among the different boxes stored in the warehouse was a man in his fifties, with a moustache and practically no hair. It was not clear, perhaps not even to himself, whether he was looking for something useful or just trying to keep busy.

The fourth man stood leaning against a wall, massive arms crossed in front of him. His age was difficult to guess, what with his decidedly black hair but a beard that was completely white. His eyes were closed. On the surface he looked more relaxed than the others, although a certain tenseness across his broad shoulders betrayed his growing unease.

"I don't get it." the girl suddenly burst out, turning to her friend. "He's never left us for so long before, not once. I'm just saying, there are times he won't even let us finish our conversation, he's so quick, and now we've been here for hours already! Do you... Do you think something might have happened?"

The worried frown on the boy's face only deepened at her words, but he answered bravely enough. "He'll just have fallen asleep, I expect. You know him, he was probably up all hours of the night, following us on the screen. When things started winding down it must have caught up to him. He's not the youngest anymore, after all."

"Nonsense, Spike." The bald man spoke up, while examining the contents of a nearby chest. "Like Suzy said, it's been longer than ever. Even if he had fallen asleep, Sidonia would have woken him up by now. We have to face the fact that we might be stuck here, perhaps forever. Who knows what might have happened? Too bad he didn't fix that emergency teleport yet. This is the last time we go anywhere without that thing." If he noticed the glare Spike sent in his direction, he gave no sign of it.

At his words, Suzy jumped up and started pacing, even more nervous than before. She was very near to panicking. "Stuck here? Forever? We can't be! What about aunt? What about going to university? We have our lives out there!"

As she spoke, Spike stood up as well and came up behind her, so that her next turn brought her right into his arms. For a moment she held herself stiff in his embrace, but then she relaxed marginally. She brought up her own arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly. 

"Don't worry, Suzy." Spike said, rubbing small comforting circles on her back. "We'll figure something out, one way or another, you'll see. Don't we always? There's no getting rid of us. Tougher than weed, that's us."

Suzy nodded shortly and stepped back from the embrace, blinking back the unshed tears. "You're right, of course." She smiled bravely. "We've had worse than this. We're all healthy. Panicking won't help us at all. So! We need to decide what to do next. Ambrose, I really don't think you'll find anything of interest in there, please come join us so we can discuss our situation."

Ambrose, who had been staring at one particular crate, looked up. "I beg to differ, Suzy. In fact, we might not want to get back right away, not until we've looked into why this here," he pointed at the crate, “is stored in a 1448 warehouse. Come look."

Curiosity piqued, the other three trouped around the crate to peer inside, and found neatly stacked parts that vaguely resembled computer motherboards. Before they could say anything more, they heard someone coming into the warehouse, whistling a jaunty tune - which just so happened to be popular somewhere in the nineties. As one, they turned to see a tall, lanky man with an unruly mop of brown hair and a pinstripe suit strolling in. 

"Oh, hello!" he said with a little wave of his free hand and a friendly smile, when he noticed he was not alone. "I was just... wait, wait. Ambrose? Jethro? Spike and Suzy?" He smiled broadly. "How are you doing! How is Sidonia, she's not here with you? And... you have no idea who I am, do you?" His smile faltered just a little. 

Both Ambrose and Spike shook their heads. Suzy was too taken aback to do anything more than stare. Jethro's thoughts, as usual, were anyone's guess.

"Right! Introduction time then." The smile returned, if a little less broad than before. "I'm the Doctor." He performed a curious little half-bow. Before pulling himself upright, he noticed the crate they were all standing around. 

"Ooh, what do we have here then?" With a flourish, he produced a silver tube from his pocket, which he aimed at the motherboards. A blue light erupted from the tip, accompanied by a high-pitched noise. "Aha! If I didn't think so! These beauties are of Quonlian descent, very popular in the... oh, I'd say fortyfifth century or thereabouts? Used to store people's memories, something like a system backup - for a price, obviously. Then there was that whole privacy debacle and they were banned pretty much galaxy-wide. 'Course, there was always the Black Market, the planet that is, where you can get anything if you have the money and the..." he trailed off when he saw the faces in front of him, none of which were looking at the Quonlian memory boards, but rather at him, with varying degrees of wide-eyed shock. He tugged at his earlobe, slightly embarrassed. “Too much, too soon?” he asked. 

Ambrose was the first to shake off the spell that the Doctor's appearance had put them under. “OK. Who are you and what the hell are you talking about?”

“Well...” the tall man said, drawing out the word. His hand moved from his earlobe to the back of his neck, even more embarrassed. “Thing is, I'm a time traveller... among other things... and I've met you before in my personal timeline. It would seem that meeting has not yet taken place for you.”

Ambrose scoffed. “Really? A time traveller? And we're just supposed to believe that?”

Suzy frowned at him. “Ambrose, you're in 1448 waiting to get zapped back to 2019. That's honestly the part you're going to object to? Look at his clothes, they're not what you might call contemporary. We are dressed more contemporary than he is!”

While Ambrose sputtered to find an answer, Spike turned to the Doctor. “Mister Doctor,”

“Just Doctor, thanks.”

“Alright then, Doctor. You knew our names when you came in, so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're telling the truth. You probably have a different means of travelling. Could you take us home? Normally the professor zaps us back with his teletimemachine, but we've been waiting for hours and we're still here. We're afraid something has happened back home, so we need to get back and investigate.”

The Doctor grinned. “Brilliant! Usually I need a much longer lead-up to the whole time-travelling bit, especially when meeting out of order. So, getting you home! I can help you, yes. What's better, I will, too! Right after we take care of our little Quonlian problem here.”

“What, stay even longer?” Suzy exclaimed. “We need to get back there now!”

“Ah, but that's the beauty of my kind of travel, my dear Suzy, as opposed to yours. We can stay here as long as we want, and afterwards I can get you back to the exact moment you should have been, what did you call it, zapped back? I like that word, zapped. It's a nice word.  
I could take you back home to investigate now, if that's what you really want, and then come back here alone, but where's the fun in that? And the TARDIS might get ideas if I leave here now, and drop me off at Rextapon 6 if I try to return. Believe me, Rextapon 6 is the last place you want to be. Their idea of fun is staring at a wall all day.   
I'm just saying, she got me here for a reason, right? Unless that reason was to pick up you guys, of course, but either way, here I am, here you are, what do you say?” The waggle of his expressive eyebrows had Suzy laughing, even as Ambrose's scowl deepened. 

“Doc talks too much.” They were the first words Jethro had spoken in a few hours. He rarely saw the need for words, let alone whole speeches, but his silent presence and endless patience was always a source of comfort for his friends.

Spike and Suzy did not have to discuss their answer. They had already had so many adventures together, one more was almost par for the course. They were both fairly certain that Jethro would support them, he usually did, which only left one person to be convinced. Ambrose had sulked off after Suzy's admonishment, even though he made sure to stay close enough to hear everything they were saying.

No visible sign passed between Spike and Suzy, yet somehow they came to the understanding that it would be Suzy who would cajole him into joining them. Practice made perfect, as they said. It was the general consensus that if Ambrose needed convincing, Suzy was the go-to person. She smiled apologetically at the Doctor. “Excuse me one moment.”

Going over to where Ambrose was standing with his arms crossed in front of his chest, his scowl forbidding, she draped an arm over his shoulder. “Look, Ambrose,” she started, but he cut her off.

“Suzy, no. Don't even try it, I don't want to know. I don't like that guy, and I most certainly don't trust him, Doctor or no. What kind of Doctor, huh, have you wondered that? We don't know anything about him!”

She decided to start her offensive off with a classic. “Oh, but you just have to come, Ambrose. What would we do without your expert leadership? We wouldn't know where to start.” She was happy to see that he was already starting to look a little mollified, and she'd only just started. “Besides, if we help him, we won't owe him a favour. You don't want to be stuck in 1448 any more than we do, do you? This way, we'll have repaid him up front and he won't have to appear in your life again.” 

She conveniently failed to mention the first meeting the other way around, which she hoped he'd forgotten about. She noticed him looking speculatively at the group, especially at the stranger. She knew she almost had him, so she finished off with her trump card. “As I seem to recall, it -was- your idea to investigate those things. You're not going to let him upstage you, are you? If you join us, we get to enact your idea, AND we get home in good enough time that aunt Sidonia won't have to be worried!”

She had him. As he turned back to the group, she took care that her smug grin could be seen only by Spike, although the twinkle in the Doctor's brown eyes suggested he'd seen as well. 

“We'd love to help out, Doctor.” Spike said. “Now, you seem to know more about these boards than we do. Where do you propose we start?”

The delighted grin that spread over the Doctor's face at Spike's words told Suzy enough. She did not care what Ambrose said, this could not be a bad man. An eccentric one, perhaps, and he did tend to ramble, but trustworthy nevertheless.

“Brilliant! In my experience, since we've now decided to have an adventure together, the bad guys tend to make it easy for us by showing up and claiming their own – especially if they don't know the formidable alliance we've just formed. If they don't, we can always go from there, but I'm still expecting them any time now. When they do, Jethro, could you take along the prize? It's probably best not to just hand it to them. After all, we don't know their plan yet. For all we know, they want it for something entirely benevolent... but knowing this technology, I doubt it very much. Either way, we'll need to get them to my ship, see if I can find why they turned up in such an unlikely place.”


	2. Chapter 2 - Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suzy and Jethro enter the TARDIS.

The Doctor was hardly done talking or his prediction came true. A number of men burst through the warehouse doors, dressed like locals but wielding weapons that were far ahead of their time. In fact, they were so far ahead that Spike and Suzy had never even seen them. 

“No more time to talk. Run!” The Doctor yelled, leading by example. He rushed to the back, where a small door led to an alleyway between two warehouses. He was quickly followed first by Suzy and then Jethro, who had gathered up the crate and carried it perched on one of his broad shoulders without visible effort. A quick glance told Suzy that Spike was not far behind, so she focused on keeping pace with the Doctor, who was weaving in and out of the small streets. 

Several of the attackers had followed them and were even gaining on them. The blasters that they were equipped with did not use bullets, but they shot a sort of green energy that, judging by the thuds, had quite an impact on whatever they hit. Luckily, the shooters seemed to have slept through their marksmanship lessons, as the shots went wide overhead. Finally, after a complicated series of corners, quick turns, passageways and narrow escapes, they found themselves alone, leaning against a wall catching their breath. At least Suzy and the Doctor were catching, Jethro seemed unwinded despite his load. 

It was at this point that they realised something.

Suzy asked the obvious question. “Where are Spike and Ambrose? I saw Spike when we were leaving the warehouse, but after that I was too focussed on running. We have to go back!”

The Doctor grabbed her hand to restrain her. “Suzy, wait! Think about this for a second. Those men, they weren't trying to harm us. Well, not much anyway. They were trying to catch us, probably to take us to their leader. If they caught Spike and Ambrose, they'd have taken them away. If one of them – or both- escaped, they won't be at the warehouse anymore either. Whatever happened, our next step must move us forward, not back the way we came.  
“Hmm, that's a deep thought, isn't it. Philosophical like.”

“Alright then, Doctor.” Suzy wrenched her hand free and turned to face him. “Which way is forward then? Because I can tell you, we are getting Spike back one way or another, and not by sitting around waiting for the bad guys to find us.”

The Doctor beamed at her. “Suzy, I like you! First things first, we need to get to my spaceship with these memory boards. From there I should be able to engineer a mnemonically linked scan to see where else there's a large amount lying around. The place with most memory boards together is likely to be our destination. Once we've figured out the reason for their presence and done something about it, we can get you home, just as soon as we find Spike and Ambrose.”

“What are we waiting for then? Lead the way!”

 

******

 

Not long after the three of them stood in front of a blue box. 

“This is your ship?” Suzy's tone was incredulous. “It doesn't look very ship-like, does it?”

“Oy, don't offend her! She's a sensitive old gal! Anyway, her chameleon circuit is broken. I've tinkered around on and off to try and fix it, but I'm starting to suspect she's rather fond of this disguise. If I'm being entirely honest, so am I, so I don't usually try too hard.”

“And how will we all fit? I mean it... she... is the size of a telephone box! I'm not exactly the biggest person, and you're just plain skinny, but have you seen Jethro's chest? I don't think the two of us plus his muscles will all fit in there.”

“Only one way to find out.” Jethro said, pushing past them and through the door. From impossibly far inside the box his voice came floating back. “Won't be problem, Suze.”

Suzy looked wide-eyed at the Doctor. Her brain was having difficulties reconciling the obvious dimensions of the blue box with the distance of Jethro's voice. The Doctor in return merely smiled and gestured invitingly at the door of his ship. Wary of what she might find, she gingerly pushed it open and gazed at the ballroom-sized console room inside. She blinked a couple of times, shook her head, and went back outside to take a long hard look at the wood panels. She even knocked on one of them experimentally.

The Doctor was watching her actions expectantly, a boyish grin on his face. He was balancing on the balls of his feet in anticipation. “Go on, say it! You know you want to!”

Suzy shook her head again, trying to clear it. The differences were giving her a headache. “It's... it's bigger on the inside.”

“Yes! There you go, don't you feel so much better now that you've said it? Now come on, we don't have any time to waste!” He bounded into his ship and up the iron ramp in exuberant leaps. In the center, right next to the central column, he turned to face is passengers and spread his arms wide. 

“Welcome to the TARDIS! Time and Relative Dimension in Space. You've just seen the Relative Dimension in action, you will see Time after this is over, and the Space... well, let's keep that for another time.”

Suzy followed the Doctor at a slower pace, looking around in wonder at the beams growing like corral out of the floor. “I have no idea what to say. Jethro, the least you could do is look a little surprised. This isn't something you see every day, you know.”

Jethro shrugged, though a tiny smile played around his lips. He was very impressed, but he had a better control over his own features than many people. He had found it unnerved some people when his expression hardly changed, no matter what they threw at him. “Finding 'Brose and Spike more urgent.” 

The Doctor snapped his fingers. “Yes, it is! Let's take a look at those memory boards. I'll rig up that scan, so we know where to go. In the meantime I'll see what I can find out from the boards themselves, perhaps run them through a Sendarian matrix. There might be some modifications to the standard issue board that could help determine what we're up against.”

“Is there anything we can do to help? I'd feel badly, just sitting around watching you do all the work.”

“Nonsense, Suzy! Unless I'm very much mistaken – and I very rarely am – this stuff's about twentyfive centuries ahead of your time. I believe you said something about having been stuck here for hours. After that and the chase, I'm sure you can do with a shower or a bath, and a bite to eat after. If you go through that door over there and you turn left, the fourth door on your right will be the bathroom. Go ahead, the TARDIS will show you. Jethro, if you turn right, the second door to your right should also be a bathroom.”

“There's more? How big is this TARDIS of yours anyway? And why do you have two bathrooms?”

“You do like asking questions, don't you? Yes, there's more. No, I can't tell you how big she is, because frankly that's a bit of a silly question when it comes to the TARDIS. Two bathrooms because, well...” He rubbed his neck. “I don't always travel alone, and my companions don't always want to share their bathroom. Now off you go, by the time you're done I'll have more information.”

Suzy frowned and crossed her arms. “I'm not some dog you can shoo away, Doctor. 'Off you go' indeed.”

The Doctor stared at her for a moment. “Was I being rude again? Don't mind me, I'm a very rude man these days. I'm just trying to make the wait a bit more comfortable.”

“Alright then.”Suzy said, slightly mollified. She went through the door that the Doctor had indicated, glancing in both directions of the corridor before turning left. The TARDIS helpfully lit up along the way. Suzy wondered why the lights should know which door she needed. She hadn't seen the Doctor press any buttons. However, it was a concern soon dismissed by a keen sense of curiosity about the other doors she was passing. 

Her curiosity had brought her into trouble more times than she could count, but how much could really happen from a little peek? Quite a lot really, she knew from experience, but perhaps not so much while she was on the Doctor's ship. She opened one door a fraction and peered inside. There was a pool there. And not just a tiny little pool, no, it seemed to be Olympic-sized, if not bigger. She closed the door again. She really didn't feel like swimming right now, and thinking about how a pool of that size could fit inside a police box would give her a headache. Perhaps when Spike was back, they could come here together. 

On the other side of the corridor there was a games room. It had everything, from a darts board and a pool table to something that looked very vaguely like a wii. When she closed this door, she felts a sense of amusement, and something like a push/pull in the direction of the bathroom. Suzy looked around suspiciously before going to the correct door and pushing it open.

The bathroom was big, at a comfortable temperature, and the bath was already filled. She was going to have to ask him how he did that – first the lights, now a bath? And the water's temperature was perfect too, she felt when she dipped in a hand. Never mind how he had done it, she was going to enjoy this, as much as possible given the current situation anyway. 

As she lay soaking, she felt some of the tension of the past several hours draining away. At least they – or the Doctor anyway – were doing something now, even if they had lost Ambrose and Spike. She felt certain that if either she or Jethro could do something, anything, to help, the Doctor would let them know. She just hoped that wherever her friends were, they were at least ok.


	3. Chapter 3 - The capture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spike and Ambrose in the villain's lair.

Spike had been right behind Suzy when they left the warehouse, but when he looked around to see if Ambrose was following, he noticed that the other man was surrounded by the attackers. Spike needed about half a second to decide that this was an unacceptable situation, so he charged at their assailants to relieve his friend. It was a brave move – of course it was, nobody in their right mind would ever dispute Spike's bravery – but futile in the end, because by that time the warehouse had filled with the enemy's men, and they were pointing their strange-looking guns at the two friends. So far no shots had been loosed, but they were both aware that the likelihood of this situation changing increased drastically the longer they struggled. They let go of the men they had been fighting and put their hands up in the air.

In short order their wrists were bound with rope and they were sitting to one side while some of the men searched through the warehouse.

“There's something odd about those men,” Spike muttered.

“You mean apart from those big wopping guns in 1448?” Ambrose quipped.

Spike very nearly rolled his eyes, but he answered nonetheless. “Yes, apart from that too obvious to mention oddity. I meant the way they are moving. I don't know how to explain it, but look at those men who are searching.”

Ambrose looked over and narrowed his eyes. There was a jerkiness about their movements that did not feel natural. “I see your point. It's like they need to decide to move. And the ones who are not searching... it's unnatural, as still as they are standing. Uncanny.”

Spike nodded. “Exactly. And none of them are talking. They haven't said a word to us, but not to each other either. It's creeping me out. I feel ridiculous saying this, considering the year, but do you think they might be robots?”

The older man shook his head. “That guy over there with the blue tunic, I gave him a black eye. I'm pretty sure if you are able to make robots that lifelike and get them to 1448, at least you'd make them out of a material that is hard to damage.”

Before their conjecture could take them any further, it seemed that the search had come to an end. Still without a single words, the guards started moving again, pulling the two men to their feet and making them walk between them.

The streets of Antwerp were deserted. By now it was well past dark, and prudent people stayed behind closed doors. Less prudent and more dishonorable people were not keen on meeting such a large group of men head-on. Perhaps it was for the best, Spike thought. He would not wish to endanger the lives of anyone trying to help. He had no idea what these men might be capable of, and he did not particularly want to find out, either. The blank expression in their eyes and their odd way of moving were still creeping him out. He had a hunch that they would not hesitate to take out even children if they were in the way.

For now, he and Ambrose would go with them quietly. With a little luck, they would bring their prisoners to their main base of operation. With a little more luck, Suzy would find a way there as well. That Doctor bloke had seemed to know what he was doing. In any case Spike would try to find out the plan, if ever one of these men would talk to him.

Soon, they found themselves entering a mansion on the outskirts of the town. Two men brought Ambrose and Spike to a windowless room, locking the door behind them as they left. There was no furniture in the room, the walls were bare and smooth. After a quick inspection round - because you never know - the two men had nothing to do but wait, while talking quietly with each other.

Every now and then one of them would start about an escape plan, but without an idea of who had captured them, what the house looked like or even how to get out of this one room, there was little they could do. 

It had to be several hours later, possibly the next morning, that their door opened again. At the very least, it was long enough that the conversation had fallen silent. Ambrose lay dosing in one corner, while Spike was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room. He was exhausted, but the worry for Suzy was keeping him awake. 

It had looked like she was getting away, but what if she had not? What if she had been captured, perhaps even locked into the next room? Too many what-ifs haunted his thoughts.

The men who came in had also been in the warehouse. They still had the same stilted way of moving. They woke up Ambrose with a none too gentle kick to the ribs. Spike was not sure whether they had meant to kick quite that hard, or if they'd just misjudged the distance. With those odd jerks, both possibilities were equally likely. Either way, it did the job of getting Ambrose wide awake and decidedly belligerent, however little he could do about it at the moment. The scowl on his face promised hell to the first person to give him an opening. 

They were escorted through a series of corridors and up some stairs, at which point they were seperated. Spike entered a sort of drawing room, with an assortment of furniture that must have caught the owner's eye at different times, as they did not fit together. In the wall opposite him there was a merrily crackling fire. One of the comfortable-looking chairs in front of it was occupied, although the back was turned to the door. When it closed behind him, he was left alone with the mysterious stranger.

“Come in, come in!” A smooth voice said. “Do not be afraid, I do not bite. Much.”

They were the first words anyone had spoken to him since his capture, and despite their jovial tone, Spike did not trust them in the least. Still, the movements that he could see from where he was standing looked at least more natural than those of his captors. It would not hurt to have a face to put to, for want of better information, their leader.

Approaching the chair gingerly, he was taken aback to find that it was not a human being who was sitting there. He had a humanoid form – if you looked from behind and squinted – but the face was rather furry and vaguely resembled a fox. The hands, too, were covered in fur, Spike saw when the creature gestured to the chair opposite. His eyes were a deep black, without any whites showing.

“Do sit down. Are you hungry at all? I can have something brought up. You have been in my care for some time and I have been remiss in providing you with sustenance.”

Spike sat down on the edge of the chair, but made little reply to the rest of the statement. Yes, he was hungry, but he was not about to trust his host. 

“You are wary of me, I see. Smart lad. Still, I give you my word that the food is not poisoned or anything silly like that. If I had wanted you dead, you would not be sitting here. After all, do I not already have you in my power? I have no need for such sly methods of killing.”

“What do you want with us?”

“No banter then? Very well. I want what is mine, but to start with I want information. Such as, what were you doing in that warehouse, and what happened to the Wandra boards?”

“We were waiting... for a friend,” Spike answered. Despite the man's – fox's – appearance, there was no need to tell him about the time-travelling aspect of the tale. “He was late, and now he probably won't be able to find us anymore. I don't know what Wandra boards are.”

The foxman narrowed his black eyes. “Let me tell you right now, young man, that I am somewhat telepathically gifted. I suggest you keep that in mind before you lie to me. I can see an image of the Wandra boards in your head, you must have seen them recently, and you will tell me where they are. I searched the whole warehouse. There was no sign of them.”

Spike wondered for a moment at the odd phrase. His men had searched the warehouse, yes, but he had not been nearby. There was something he was missing.

“If you mean those things that looked like computer motherboards, I did see them in that warehouse. If they are not there anymore, I couldn't tell you where they might be.”

“Hmm. I believe you, for now. If you had known their location, you would have thought about it already. Just like you are thinking now about this... Doctor... that you met there. Who is he then?”

It was worrying, the way this foxman could lift images from his mind by asking a question. He would know exactly what to ask to draw out the information he wanted. Spike was not very used to dealing with telepaths, but he did the first thing he could think of to defend himself. He started singing a very annoying song about a rabbit and a fly, which basically repeated the same sentence over and over. He concentrated all of his thoughts on the song.

Foxman sat back with a chilling little smile on his face. “Clumsy,” he said, “if effective for a short period of time. Rather annoying, though. You know you won't be able to keep this up forever, so you might as well give up now. Need I really remind you that I have your friend, as well? It is not just you here. Ah, I see that grabbed your attention alright. Ready to stop with that infernal song now?”

Spike's eyes had gone wide. “What are you going to do to him?”

“Oh, I imagine I will interrogate him, same as you. I do not doubt he knows just as little as you. After that, well... I would hate to spoil the surprise. However, if you refuse your cooperation, I am afraid I will have to hurt him.” 

Spike sat back, defeated. If he could save Ambrose by answering questions, he would. And the person in front of him knew it.

“Excellent! Now, first we will talk about this Doctor, and then we're going to look into the whys and wherefores of a lad in local clothing knowing what a computer motherboard is, when computers will not be around on this infernal backwater planet for another five centuries or so.”


	4. Chapter 4 - Ambrose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Suzy and Jethro move into the lair, while Spike finds out what the Wandra boards are used for

Her bath was not quite as long as the ones she was used to taking back home. She had a churning feeling in the pit of her stomach, worried as she was about Ambrose and Spike. Still, it refreshed her enough that she felt she could tackle the world again, if only she had her best friend back. Together they could handle anything. 

When she had dried off, she found that the blue period dress that she had worn was nowhere to be found. Instead she found a neatly folded white dress with a red border at the bottom, and a red ribbon for her hair on top of the pile. Underneath it were socks and sturdy hiking boots. In other words, the kind of clothes she usually wore at home. She eyed the pile of clothes suspiciously. She would have noticed somebody coming into the bathroom. There was no logical explanation for her other clothes disappearing and the new ones lying innocently on a rack.

Enough was enough. She had seen her share of mysteries here, and she wanted an explanation. Her curiosity did not so much ask as demanded it, and she was not in the habit of gainsaying her curiosity. She quickly got dressed, noting distractedly that the fabric was softer than what she was used to. It felt quite nice, but it was not going to change her resolve.

Binding her blonde hair back into the ribbon, she felt better than she had since they had realised they were not going home. She felt like herself again.

Marching down the corridor, she entered the console room, where the Doctor was busy aiming the silver tube he had used back in the warehouse. It was emitting the same high-pitched noise and showing the blue light. When he heard her, he looked up and smiled. 

“Hello, Suzy! Did you have a nice bath? There is some food over there, you must be starving by now. If you want anything else, there's a kitchen too. I've nearly tracked down what seems to be the only other place where more of these boards are gathered. We'll have to be patient just a little bit longer. I've been doing some testing with those boards, found some interesting things. They're called Wandra boards. Sorry, did you want to ask something?” he asked when she raised her hand.

“Jethro is right, you do talk too much. I want to know, how did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“The thing with the lights in the corridor, and filling the bath without leaving this room, getting the temperature just right without it cooling off, giving me my own clothes, taking the other ones away... that sort of thing.”

“Oh, that!” He grinned. “I didn't, the TARDIS did. She's not just bigger on the inside. She's a living spaceship. She takes care of her passengers – although admittedly she takes better care of some passengers than others. She does seem to have taken a shine to you.”

“Wait, wait. You're saying we're inside a living being right now. Who can fill up bathtubs and stuff. That's weird. So does she talk to you? How does she know what is needed?”

“We communicate telepathically. Feelings more than words though.”

“So what I felt earlier was her?”

The Doctor regarded her seriously for a moment. “What did you feel earlier?”

“I was... sort of a little bit curious about some of those other doors, so I might have opened one or two of them. I felt... I don't know, amusement? It wasn't my own feeling though.”

A smile spread over the Doctor's handsome features. “You mean you actually felt her? That is brilliant! You must be very receptive, telepathically speaking. No wonder she likes you so much, not many people are actually open to her way of communicating, and certainly not many so soon after meeting her for the first time. We are going to talk more about this when we have some time, get everyone involved... although on second thought that might not be such a good idea. Not everyone takes well to being told that there is something they can't do.

“We'll keep it to ourselves for the moment, our little secret. I'd be interested in finding out just how receptive you are. I'm rather gifted telepathically myself. Well, my people were. I don't always enjoy that particular talent, even if it comes in useful at times. Don't worry, I don't go around picking the thoughts out of your head, not unless you give me your permission, and even then I only see what you want me to see.”

“Your people? Who might they be then? Your fashion sense... if I can call it that,” she said with a glance at his converses, “screams 21st century, but as far as I know living spaceships and whatever that silver tube is –“

“Sonic screwdriver!” he said with a happy smile.

“- Sonic screwdrivers don't come in high supply, and neither do telepaths, despite some people's claims. Are you even from Earth?”

“Not as such, no,” he answered, the smile melting away. “I'm a Time Lord from Gallifrey. I'm 900 years old, give or take a few years, and every so often my face changes. Any questions?”

Suzy stared at him. “You're looking good for a 900-year-old.”

Some of the darkness in his gaze seemed to lift. “You are taking everything remarkably well, Suzy. Some of the people I've travelled with, I've had to be careful to give some space inbetween revelations, or they might have run away screaming. You're just taking everything in stride.”

The young woman shrugged. “I've had a pretty remarkable life, compared to some. I've seen things most people my age can only dream of, and not everything can be explained away by mundane causes. So why not accept your word? I find it helps to take people's claims at face value. If they are not who they say they are, they usually fall through in the end. Anyway, the more unbelievable claims usually turn out to be true.”

“You are a marvellous young woman, Suzy!” the Doctor said, a smile spreading again. When a sound came from the console, his face lit up even further. “Oh! It went ding! That means there's stuff! Lets see. We know where to go now. Like I thought, there is only one place with a large amount of these babies. I'll pilot the TARDIS there and we'll have a little look around. Feeling up to some snooping, Jethro?” he asked just as the console door opened to admit the silent man. 

“Right, now that we're all here... The tests I've been running on the Wandra boards indicate they've been altered from their original purpose. They don't just store the memories, like a back-up, they extract them completely from the subject. 

“When that is done, you are left with a clean slate, so to speak, the husk of a man. Alive, but without personality, without all the little things that made him who he was. I haven't quite figured out why one would want to do something like that, but I will! I'm quite the genius after all. I just need a bit more information. Ready Suzy? Jethro?

“Allons-y!” With a dramatic fling of the arm, he flipped a large switch on the console, allowing Suzy and Jethro to hear for the first time the sound that brought hope to so many, the vworping of the TARDIS materialising. 

When the sound stopped, the Doctor smiled at them. “Right. Let's go find out what this is all about, shall we?”

***

Spike was not sure what he was looking at. The foxman, who had introduced himself as Reynart, had interrogated him for some time, and then he had left to talk with Ambrose. Two men were left to make sure he did not attempt an escape. They stood by the door, one on either side, as still as statues. The only movement was in their eyes. The effect was disconcerting.

When they started moving again, they took Spike between them and brought him two doors down, where they tied him to a chair. “Just a precaution,” Reynart had said. And that was where Spike now found himself, looking at... well, it was a machine, that much was certain. It was made of metal and shaped more or less like a box, although on one side there was a niche where a person could be made to sit, with a number of wires going from the seat to the back. On the other side, although Spike could not see it very well, there seemed to be some buttons, controls for the machine. For the life of him, he could not imagine what it might do.

He did not have to wait long to find out, however. Ambrose was brought in between two men and made to sit in the machine's seat. “Spike! Thank god, are you ok?” he asked as the men busied themselves attaching the wires to different parts of his body. He did not pay them much mind until he saw Spike's nod that despite his current predicament, he had not been hurt. 

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked, once he was sure that Spike was alright. 

“What does it look like I am doing?” Reynart asked from his spot behind the machine, contempt obvious in his voice. “I am wiring you up, that is what I am doing. You will be useful to me yet.”

“I will be no such thing! You let me go right now, you puffed up self-important waste of space, and let me and Spike get out of here in peace –“ Ambrose was cut off mid-sentence when Reynart pushed a button. For a moment his mouth fell open, but then he calmly stood up and started removing wires. The two men who had attached them stepped away to make room for him. 

Spike looked on in confusion. “What... Ambrose? What happened?” With a chilling smile and blank eyes his friend turned to him, showing the same jerky movements as the other men.

“Ambrose is gone, young Spike,” Reynart said. “My army grows. I think...” he stopped talking, seemingly distracted for a moment. “Oh, it would seem you have not been abandoned. Good, I will have everyone who might conceivably stop me then. You will cooperate now, or the girl suffers.”

Without much further discussion, Spike was wired up to the machine. He did not doubt that Suzy and Jethro, and possibly the Doctor, had found their way here. He just wished there was something he could do to warn her.


	5. Chapter 5 - Spike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Suzy find Spike, but are they too late to save him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting the last two chapters in short succesion because I want to share the story with people who actually know who Spike and Suzy are...

They had landed in what looked like a small basement. Right in front of them was a rickety wooden staircase going up. The Doctor led the way, carefully opening the door at the top. They looked out at an empty room, with several doors in the walls and another stairwell on the opposite side. They cautiously entered the room, but there was no alarm. Suzy opened one of the doors a crack and peered inside. 

“Doctor!” she whispered, beckoning him and gesturing at the room behind the door with her head. When he came over, he saw several men standing in a row. They were breathing, and every now and then their eyes blinked, but there was no other sign that they were alive. The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver and frowned. 

“They're not robots. Definitely flesh and blood, but they look like... I don't know, like they're in storage? I wonder... Let's go on.”

The other rooms held the same eerie sight, in all about fifteen men were standing there, doing nothing at all. The three of them went up another level, arriving on the ground floor. They must be in one of the richer parts of town, they seemed to be in a mansion rather than a house. 

The ground floor was devoid of people, as was the first floor. Suzy's nerves were frayed. Something should have happened by now, they should have seen somebody, found something!

It was not until the last room on the second floor that they finally found someone. Spike was sitting there, strapped to some kind of device. He looked up when they opened the door. “Suzy! Jethro! Get out of here, it's a trap! He knows you're here!”

“Spike!” Suzy yelled, but before she could move – either forward to free him or away to follow his words – she was grabbed from behind and her arms were twisted to her back. She lifted a foot and stamped down hard with the sensible hiking boots the TARDIS had so thoughtfully provided. She heard a grunt behind her, but her arms were not released. 

Jethro and the Doctor were surrounded by men training their odd guns on them. A figure appeared from behind the machine. 

“Welcome! I gather you three are the reason my property disappeared. So nice of you to join us, now I had no need to go and look for you. You saved me quite a lot of time really, so thank you for that. Now, if you please, I would like my own back. And Jethro, do not even consider attacking. My guns aim straight for the nervous system.”

Suzy stared at the figure. Whatever it was, it was not human, that much was clear. Fur covered its hands and face, which looked more like a fox's than a man's. The Doctor was regarding it with narrowed eyes.

“A Renaltorian? What are you doing here? You usually keep yourself to yourself. Society like yours, I don't blame you. I'd keep out of other people's business too. So what brings you to Earth in such a technologically underdeveloped time period?”

“Ah, Doctor. I thought you might be the first to speak. I did not realise, however, that you were such a gifted telepath. That is a victory I very much look forward to. These humans, inventive though they are,” he glanced at Spike, “are no match for my abilities. But you! As strong as your defenses are, you cannot possibly be human. I shall enjoy breaking you very much indeed.  
“To answer your question, since you will not be repeating it to anyone, I am here because I had grown bored back home. Keeping oneself to oneself can grow rather tedious, especially when the Queen and her guards maintain a strict no-conflict policy.  
“I came here to take over this world. I am tempted to say I would rule it like the Queen, but that is not strictly speaking a correct statement. Rather, I am making these humans a part of me, an extension of myself. Very soon now, I will start bringing over certain like-minded individuals, who will build armies of their own, and THEN I will rule like the Queen, only better.”

Suzy had not thought it possible, but it seemed that they had met a man – and she used the term loosely – who loved the sound of his own voice even better than the Doctor. No sooner had she thought this, or the Doctor jumped right in.

“So that's why you need those boards! You wipe their memory, literally, and in you hop. Puppet master extraordinaire!”

“Yes, quite. Now, I will need the Wandra boards you stole from me, and you will give them to me without fuss. Otherwise your young friend here will suffer the consequences. That includes you, Jethro. I can hurt Spike long before you can reach my main body.”

“Never mind me! You have to stop him!”

Before Spike could continue, the foxman pressed a button on his machine. Spike's muscles seized up, and he screamed in agony. 

“Spike!” Suzy struggled with renewed strenght against her captor, but the grip was too strong, and she could not gain any leverage. Foxman pressed the button again, and Spike slumped back, dazed but for the moment pain-free.

“Let that be a warning. Now bring me those boards, no more delays!”

Jethro and the Doctor both gave their word to behave, and were promptly led back the way they had come. Suzy wanted to go over to Spike, who was coming around again, but still she was held back. Spike blinked a few times, before focusing on her. 

“Suzy... Oh Suzy, he has Ambrose! He doesn't remember me, Suzy. All those years, all those adventures, and there's nothing left, not even a glimmer of recognition. He doesn't know you, either.” Spike's eyes looked up at her captor. She turned her head as far as it would go. She had been so focused on everything in front of her that she had not realised who was holding her.

Spike was right, Ambrose did not recognise either of them. His eyes, usually so warm, had a cold and calculating look about them, a look that she had seen in the Renaltorian's eyes as well. He barely moved, except to keep a firm grip on her arms.

“He just hooked him up. I told him everything he wanted to know and still he hooked Ambrose to this thing and changed him!”

“And your cooperation made the transition painless. You should appreciate that, little Spike. You have felt what I could have done to him, and that was only just for a moment. I could have made things so much more unpleasant for your friend.”

Suzy and Spike both started. The Renaltorian had a way of vanishing into the background when he wanted to. They had both nearly forgotten he was there. 

“But why change him at all? Why not just let us go?”

Foxman laughed, although there was no humour in it. “Do I look like an inexperienced cub? He had outlived his usefulness as a human, so I made him into my tool. Why would I let you go, any of you? You would only turn around and try to stop me one way or another. I know you heroic types. Far safer to make you my puppets so I know you will do my bidding!”

***

“But on Curiate 5, now that was a party! Lasted for a month, that did. Of course, a month there lasts what, three years?” The voice that floated in through the open door belonged to the Doctor. Suzy wondered if he was always that carefree, or if it was just an act. 

The door opened, and the Doctor and Jethro entered, the latter carrying the box. The men who had gone with them took up station along the wall and seemed to power down. Suzy shuddered. It just wasn't natural. 

“Well, Renaltorian, I must say you're not quite as talkative when your main body isn't there. By the way, would you happen to have a name? I mean, I guess I could keep calling you 'Renaltorian', but that seems so impersonal. I don't go around calling every human I meet 'Human', do I?”

“If you must call me anything in the short time you have left, you can call me Reynart.” He indicated to Jethro where the crate should be put. 

“Appropriate name,” the Doctor commented. “Is it yours, or did you choose it after coming here?”

“Cease your prattling, Doctor, and watch as my army grows!”

Suzy realised what was about to happen, and threw everything she had into a renewed attempt to escape. This time she was successful, although she did twist her elbow while pulling out of Ambrose's grip. She crossed the room in three steps, but she was too late. 

One moment Spike was looking at her with pleading eyes, the next he was standing up and disentangling himself from the wires. She came to a stop in front of him. “Spike? Spike, talk to me!” She grabbed the front of his shirt as if to shake him. Even seeing Ambrose had not prepared her for the emptiness she saw in the eyes of her best friend.

“Well, Suzy,” he said in a heartbreakingly familiar voice, “who shall be next?” When he grabbed her arms, she lost the will to fight. Spike was gone. Reynart was using his body, his voice, but her best friend was dead.


	6. Chapter 6 - The resolution

Suzy took a shuddering breath, blinking back the tears. Now was not the time for mourning. She squared her shoulders and glared hatefully at the foxman. She would not go willingly into that machine. She'd rather die physically than lose her mind like that.

Reynart seemed amused by her rage and heartache. He did not make a move to get her into the seat, however. Instead, he brought the Doctor over. 

“Jethro, not a move. I still have two of your friends who can suffer if you give me cause. And oh, how I could make the girl suffer!”

Suzy shuddered. He was utterly mad.

“Oh, is it my turn now? I must say, this is not a comfy chair. You should go to Baradem some time, if you want a really comfy chair. Just be careful which one you pick, some of them bite.”

The Doctor kept up his mindless prattle while he was being hooked up to the machine. Alright, so he was just as mad as Reynart, in his own way. Should she just give up now? He was going to be converted while gibbering about the second moon on Derkum, wherever that was. And then it would be up to her and Jethro to stop Reynart, and she had no idea how.

The Doctor didn't sound as if he had a care in the world. Suzy watched. There was nothing else she could do.

Reynart went over to the crate he'd retrieved, and carefully selected one board, which he slotted into place in the machine. He checked everything was in place, and took his place behind the control panel.

And then, just as Reynart's finger touched the button that would take away the Doctor, leaving a puppet in his place, he winked at her. He actually, honest to god, winked. You did not wink at a time like that unless you had a plan.

Reynart seemed to pick up on the wild hope that was spreading through her, as he looked up sharply. He did, however, press down on the button. It was his downfall.

At first, nothing happened. Then the Doctor crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair with a smug smile on his face. 

“Oh dear. That didn't go too well, did it Reynart?”

The Renaltorian was flustered. “What did you do? How are you still yourself?”

“Well... I might have done a bit of jiggery pokery on those boards. You know the drill, setting 307C, reverse the polari... wait, no, I didn't actually reverse the polarity this time. I did attune them to the TARDIS mainframe. When my memories were sucked out of me, so to speak, she poured them right back in.”

Reynart snarled. “It matters very little. I will break you myself if I must. I will not lose!”

“Are you sure that is a good idea, Reynart? I am giving you one chance. Stop what you're doing, give these people back their memories, and we can try and find a more constructive way for you to alleviate your boredom. If you persist, you will not like what you find.”

Rather than answer, the foxman growled and stormed up to the Doctor. She felt Spike's hands release her, and when she looked up at him she saw he had shut down like the rest of the men, including Ambrose. It stood to reason, she guessed. The puppetmaster would need all his mental faculties about him if he was going to engage in a telepathic fight. He could not afford to divide his attention over even two bodies, let alone ten or fifteen.

The Doctor and Reynart, in the meantime, had stopped talking. The one had lost his sunny smile. He looked darker and more forbidding with every second that passed. She was glad he was not her enemy. When he looked like that, you could see he was not a man – or alien – to be underestimated, something that was easy to miss when he was all smiles, manic grin and endless words.

The other was snarling, his lips pulled back to show his sharp teeth. The more forbidding the Doctor's face, the more desparate Reynart's seemed to become. 

“Suze.”

Jethro had taken advantage of the lack of attention to go look for some ropes. Together they tied up everyone except the Doctor and Reynart. They didn't want to risk interrupting the fight and possibly creating a backlash for the Doctor. Who knew how these mental fights even happened?

Suddenly Reynart cried out and clutched his head. He staggered back a few steps before crumpling to the floor, unconscious. Suzy went over to free the Doctor from the wires, while Jethro tied up Reynart. The Doctor was looking grimmer than Suzy had seen him up to now. 

“What happened?”

“We fought. He started off arrogant. I don't know how long he lived here, but he had grown used to being the only telepath. I drew him in, and when he was too engaged to easily come back to himself, I flooded him with certain memories that I usually try to keep locked away. He had no defence against them.”

He drew a deep breath and looked at the prone Renaltorian. “I am sorry I had to do that. They are not pleasant memories.” For a long moment he stared, but then he shook his head and seemed to get rid of his gloomy thoughts, at least partially. He looked around at the living statues surrounding them.

“Anyway! We're not quite done yet, are we. There's still the matter of this army he was building.”

Suzy looked at Spike. He was standing as eerily still as the others, but now they all had their eyes closed. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest assured her that his body was still alive. When she caressed his cheek, there was no response. The tears she swallowed earlier now threatened to fall. “Have I lost him, Doctor?” she asked softly.

The Doctor looked up from where he was tinkering with Reynart's machine. “Lost him? Oh! No, you haven't. His memories are stored on one of these Wandra boards, they're not lost. All we have to do is get them back into him, and Bob's your uncle! Or Sidonia's your aunt. You know what I mean.”

Suzy was almost afraid to give in to the hope that the Doctor's words were inspiring. She was afraid it would only be dashed again.

“Get him back into that chair, if you please, so I can hook him back up. I don't think we'll be needing all of those wires. If I take this one here, and then sonic that one...” the Doctor devolved into mutterings that Suzy had no hope of understanding, even if she could hear them. 

She turned back to Spike and untied the rope that was binding his hands together. Then she gave one hand an experimental tug. To her surprise he did step forward, although he gave no other sign of life or even opened his eyes. She managed to guide him into the chair, getting him to sit down by lightly pressing down on his shoulders. The Doctor attached two wires to his wrists and two to his temples. 

“Right! All rigged up and ready to reverse the process! Ooh, gotta love a good alliteration. Suzy, if you will do the honours? Just press that button there,” he said, pointing his finger at the same button that had taken Spike's mind away. Suzy pushed it, and then went to kneel in front of him and take his hands in her own.

For a long moment nothing happened, and she started to fear the Doctor had been wrong. Then she felt a twitch go through his hands. After that he stayed quite still again, but the quality of the stillness had changed. Where before he'd been like a statue – alive, breathing, but otherwise empty – now he seemed to be unsure whether he was dreaming, and trying to decide if he wanted to open his eyes and check.

He licked his lips nervously. It didn't seem like a conscious gesture, but it assured Suzy that at least she was looking at a real human being again, rather than a human-sized puppet. A weight lifted off her shoulders, and she released a breath she had not realised she'd been holding. She squeezed his hands to let him know that she was real.

The action jolted him enough that his eyes opened of their own accord. He still looked confused, so she smiled at him. “Welcome back.

“Suzy? This is real? I'm not... hallucinating, or anything like that?”

Finally the tears came, but now they were tears of joy rather than mourning. Instead of answering, she launched herself into a hug.

“Feels real enough to me. Just don't scare me like that again!”

His arms came up to embrace her tightly. They stayed like that until the Doctor cleared his throat.

“Yes, well, much as I like hugs – even other people's – we do have more people to cure. If you two would lend a hand, that'd be wonderful. You can hug all you want when we're on our way to get you home.”

Jethro had already brought Ambrose back to the chair. Suzy helped Spike get rid of the wires, which she then attached to the older man's wrists and temples. His reaction on coming back was quite different from Spike's.

“... and if you so much as lay a finger on him, you lily-livered pile of vermin droppings, I will rip you a new one until your front doesn't know that your back's still alive.” He sounded as though he was continuing a rant he had started before his conversion. Suzy smiled. Ambrose had his many faults, but when push came to shove he would lay down his life for his friends in a heartbeat. 

“Hello, Ambrose.” The rant stopped mid-sentence. 

“Suzy? He's got you too? I'm going to kill him and goddammit why does my foot hurt!”

Suzy shook her head. No need to tell him the real reason.

“No, he doesn't. Well, he did, but now we've got him, so to speak.” She pointed to where foxface lay trussed up and still unconscious.

“I don't know what we're going to do with him, but I'm sure the Doctor knows.”

“That bloke's still around then? Well, so long as he's well aware who the leader around here is, he may stay.”

Suzy rolled her eyes. “Of course, Ambrose. Now get up and give us a hand, we still have loads of people to humanify again.”

“Ooh, good word, humanify. I might have to steal it. You wouldn't believe just how many times a word like that might come in handy. By the way, I found the other boards, the ones that were already used. Reynart seems to have labelled them by name, which is helpful. If, you know, we actually knew their names.

“I'm afraid I will have to go into their minds, what's left of it. Did I mention that I don't like doing that? But a name is such an integral part of who you are, something you have been called from the moment you were born. There might still be that left, like the echo of an echo.”

The Doctor went up to the first man and gently placed his hands on his temples. A frown of concentration crossed his face. “Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,” he muttered. After a moment he opened his eyes again, a sad look in his brown eyes. “It's like going into a desert without any preparation. But his name is Jan.”

Working together, they soon had Jan's memories restored, and from there the rest was quickly identified. Jan was able to tell them a few names, and they in turn knew some of the others. In the end the Doctor only had to repeat the process four times. Most of the men woke up disoriented, but soon they were ready to start organising their trips back home. The earliest disappearance seemed to have been about two months ago. 

While they did that, Suzy and Spike sat in a corner, talking. She kept holding his hand and looking into his eyes, to make sure the dead look had not returned. 

“What was it like, being converted?” she asked. 

Spike closed his eyes and shuddered. “Horrible. I could feel my memories being sucked away, but it was more than that. It took my whole consciousness, it wasn't like having amnesia. There was no time in that other place, no senses, but I was more or less aware of myself. When I woke up, for all I knew it could have been years. I don't ever want to go through something like that again.”

The Doctor overheard his words. “We'll make sure you won't need to – you or anyone else.” He aimed his sonic screwdriver at the machine with a grim expression. “We will dismantle this thing and get it to the TARDIS. I can always use the spare parts. Once everyone has gone home we'll drop our furry friend off on Renaltor. Considering his business here, I'm fairly sure he was up to no good over there as well, the authorities can deal with him. I'll have to see if I can find out who his supplier of the Wandra boards was, that seems like a business in desparate need of shutting down. But that's something for after you lot are back home.

“The men here have a story to explain away their absence. Pretty soon they'll forget all about the real events here, dismissing them as nothing more than a dream. It's a marvelous thing, the human brain. It's capable of impressive feats of self-delusion, and you're not even aware you're doing it.”

Soon after, the four friends and the Doctor were the only ones left in the mansion. Reynart had been locked away in a bare room in the TARDIS that she apparently kept for just such a purpose. Once the machine was dismantled and stored within the Doctor's ship, the man himself switched back to sunshine mode, as Suzy had started calling it.

“He wouldn't have succeeded anyway,” he explained. “Eventually he would have taken on too much, tried to control too many. Something would have broken. I shudder to think, though, how many people would have been left as a vegetable if we had not been here.”

After one last sweep through the house to make sure all anachronistic items were gone, they agreed to help drop off Reynart on his home planet, just to see the adventure through to the end. And perhaps also a little bit because they were curious to see another planet.

As it turned out, the Doctor was right. Reynart was a wanted criminal. By the time they said their goodbyes to the fox people of Renaltor, he was safely in prison.

On the way back to their own time, spirits were high. Spike and Suzy had fun exploring the TARDIS, Jethro had discovered the library and Ambrose always tried to stay close to someone else, unnerved by the TARDIS. He was torn between utter disbelief about the ship being somewhat sentient and utter terror that it was true. This was not helped by her teasing, which was subtle enough that it left the question unresolved.

Since there was no day or night in the TARDIS there was no keeping track of how long it took to get home, but after some time they heard the vworping of a successful materialisation. They all gathered in the console room. The Doctor looked at each of them in turn.

“Right, we're here. The day and hour that your professor should have brought you back, but didn't. Ready to find out the reason?”

He waggled his eyebrows expressively. Suzy laughed. Spike grabbed her hand and together they raced to the door, the Doctor following close behind. 

“Allons-y!”

**Author's Note:**

> I realise reading about people you don't know being stuck in the past is perhaps not the most riveting start of the story, so I'm posting the second chapter immediately hoping that will be a bit more interesting for you.


End file.
